PISCATAWAY, N.J. (ABP) — High-school seniors might be developing more
pro-marriage attitudes for themselves, but they are increasingly more accepting of non-marriage arrangements for others,
according to a recent report.
“The State of Our Unions 2005” is the seventh in a series of annual reports from the Marriage Project at Rutgers
University.
The report cites a variety of other surveys and studies to describe American attitudes and trends concerning
marriage, divorce, cohabitation and other family issues.
Citing a survey from Michigan, researchers report an increase in the percentage of high-school seniors who said they
expect to stay married to the same person for life. But the poll also found a greater acceptance of people having
children out of wedlock.
The “Monitoring the Future” poll found 68 percent of girls and 65 percent of boys expecting to get married said
they “very likely” will stay married to the same person for life. That was up from 63 percent among girls and 54
percent among boys in 1990.
“At the same time, there is widespread acceptance by teenagers of nonmarital lifestyles,” the authors wrote.
The same survey found 56 percent of girls and 55 percent of boys agreed with the statement: “Having a child without
being married is experimenting with a worthwhile lifestyle or not affecting anyone else.”
That was up significantly from 1980, when 41 percent of girls and 33 percent of boys agreed with the statement. While
in 1980 “girls tended to be more traditional than boys on this issue, now they are slightly less so,” the authors
noted.
Other findings of the “State of Our Unions” report included:
— Americans have become less likely to marry. In 1970, there were 76 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women, according
to U.S. Census data. By 2004, that had dropped to 40 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women.
— Cohabitation has increased “dramatically” in the past 40 years. From 1960 to 2004, the number of unmarried
couples living together has grown nearly 1,200 percent — from 439,000 couples to slightly more than 5 million,
according to the U.S. Census.
— The presence of children in America has declined since 1960, as measured by fertility rates and the percentage of
households with children. The number of births per 1,000 women age 15-44 has dropped from 118 births in 1960 to 66 in
2003, according to the National Vital Statistics Report. The percentage of households with children has dropped from 49
percent in 1960 to 32 percent in 2000, according to the census.
“Other indicators suggest that this decline has reduced the child-centeredness of our nation and contributed to the
weakening of the institution of marriage,” the authors wrote.